I went back to play some Demon's Souls today... I actually kinda feel like a lot of aspects of it are superior to Dark Souls. Damn shame. I wish they could release the server software to the community to run.

Also: You all may recall that Demon's Souls' servers have had a number of extensions to even bring it this far along. They never intended to run the servers for more than a year.

Verno wrote on Apr 13, 2012, 13:27:Agreed, the game was wildly profitable as well. There is really no excuse to shut it off this early other than intentional sunsetting.

Keep in mind, Demon's Souls was published by Atlus, while Dark Souls was published by Namco Bandai. While the developer (From Software) is getting revenue either way, Atlus' cut was pretty much cannibalized by Namco Bandai. They have little financial interest in keeping the servers up any longer.

I get it, there is a cost involved, but it has to be so minimal that I don't understand why they wouldn't take over the infrastructure. Sad to see it go. I really big patch would be nice, that kept all current messages in the SP game so you had the warnings....

Verno wrote on Apr 13, 2012, 13:27:Agreed, the game was wildly profitable as well. There is really no excuse to shut it off this early other than intentional sunsetting.

Keep in mind, Demon's Souls was published by Atlus, while Dark Souls was published by Namco Bandai. While the developer (From Software) is getting revenue either way, Atlus' cut was pretty much cannibalized by Namco Bandai. They have little financial interest in keeping the servers up any longer.

Kythlyn wrote on Apr 13, 2012, 12:49:I think it's a disturbing trend in modern gaming... you've got Sony harping on about a "10 year cycle" but developers are pulling the plug on their online servers in only a few years.

Agreed, the game was wildly profitable as well. There is really no excuse to shut it off this early other than intentional sunsetting.

There was a very high return rate on the game apparently.

Eh that's might just be people trading in "old" copies since they won't replay it. They had to do three separate large print runs for North America because they couldn't meet demand. They were shocked and largely unprepared for the games success despite it having a large import demand. I played a month ago though and I was still able to summon/invade a shitload of people at weird times so I'd say the user base is still there.

avianflu wrote on Apr 13, 2012, 11:34:it is curious they would shut the servers down so quickly. I suppose it doesnt help that it can be found used for 5-ish bucks though. There was a very high return rate on the game apparently.

I think it's a disturbing trend in modern gaming... you've got Sony harping on about a "10 year cycle" but developers are pulling the plug on their online servers in only a few years.